Flap System is Finished

Sorry for the big delay in posting. I don't know what happened. The days just flew by. A quick update and then I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. I finished the flap actuation section. I had to open up the holes in the UHMW plastic bearings before they even slid onto the rods. I then installed the entire system and found everything to be very tight. There was a lot of resistance when trying to rotate the tubes. So I took it all apart and applied grease, didn't really fix the problem, so I took it all apart again and cleaned up the general purpose grease I applied and replace it with white lithium grease in the plastic bearings...now that worked. Everything rotates very smoothly now. I also added provisions for my flap position sensor to be installed later. And then I tested the motor with a 9-volt battery just to be sure everything moved like it should.

Dates and Times
Sat 5 -4.75hrs- Stripped and painted rudder pedals, started flap actuation section

Sun 6 -3.75hrs- Worked on flap actuation, bolted tubes in place, cut bushings, riveted and bolted rudder pedals

Tues 8 -1.0hrs- finished rudder pedal assembly

Wed 9 -1.25hrs 

Sat 12 -3.0hrs- finished flap actuation section

Used the jig to set the angles of the flap horns.

I created two angles. The upper picture is the angle that attaches to the flap crank and has a series of holes down the side to allow for fine tuning the distance the position sensor is pulled in and out as the crank rotates. The lower picture is the angle that will be used to install the actual sensor.

View looking forward showing the flap motor installed and the location of the flap position sensor.

View showing the flap crank attaching to the motor arm and safety wiring. Also the angle that will be used for the flap position sensor.

Finished Flaps and Other Stuff

I finished up the flaps on Saturday. These were a really easy build and they look great. I riveted the trailing edges with proseal and with the rivets altering directions, facing up, facing down, facing up.... I did this to prevent any warping in the part during riveting. (I also did this on all the other trailing edges I have made, so nothing new). I laid some blankets down inside the fuselage and stored them in there for now.

Saturday June 15th - 4.25hrs - Finished Flaps, Riveted trailing edges.
Sunday June 16th - 5.25hrs - drilled skins, pitot tube mount, drilled holes for pitot lines, installed fuel tank

Finished Flaps Total Time = 26.25hrs

I installed the LH Fuel Tank yesterday, RH will come later. This was easier than what I thought it was going to be. I imagined lots of sweat and grunting to be required, but everything lined up really well. I first spaced them up using boards underneath the jigs they were sitting in and then after lining up the first hole I inserted a cleco into the nutplate to hold that end. I then raised the other end and did the same. I few more clecos and everything was lined up. Then I started installing the 56(?) screws...there were a lot.

I drilled out the LH skins and I got some help marking holes I drilled. Then we did the big cleco migration, where every cleco moves over one hole, to final drill the unmarked hole it was previously installed in.

 

 

 

The pitot/AoA lines are installed. I am using the Pitot/Static kit from SafeAir1. It provides tubing, connector, etc for cheaper than if you buy the stuff seperately (trust me I researched it). The tubing is nylon and can withstand -40F to 200+F, very durable. I had to drill new feed through holes for the green line, which will be my pitot line. The blue line will be my AoA line and I used the existing feed throughs made per the plans.

 

 

I worked on my pitot mast installation. I am using the Gretz pitot mast kit to install the Dynon pitot. The instructions for the install are decent, but it leaves a lot up to you, which was fun.

I used an old rib part I messed up on to scavenge an angle bracket.

Here are the 2 main parts. The angle bracket and the backing plate. (Note: This pic was post drilling, the parts don't come with holes)

 

I match drilled the backing plate to the spar first, removed it, then clecoed the skin in place. Reclecoed the plate to the spar on the outside of the skin and with the angle bracket clecoed to the spar I match drilled through the plate, skin, and bracket at the same time.

A picture with the parts clecoed in place. The skin will install over this.

I am installing in the third bay from the wing tip on the outboard rib.

More Flaps

The upper flap skins are completely riveted on and the lower skins are attached to the spar. You have to pull the skins apart and slide your hand into the flap, like a glove, to hold the bucking bar for the spar rivets. The leading edge ribs are blind rivets which makes for quick and easy work on those. The rest of the lower skin rivets are blind rivets, so that'll be nice. Next step is the trailing edge and that means more ProSeal...yay. Almost done though, I expect to finish these up this weekend. My Pitot/Static lines showed up on my doorstep yesterday, just in time for this weekend. Maybe I can get those installed as well.

Tuesday June 11th - 1.5hrs -  Back Riveted upper skin, riveted flap lower skin and leading edge
Wednesday June 12th -  0.75hrs - (My Wife's Bday!)  Finished riveting leading edge

Flaps Work

I deburred the flap skins and applied a small bend on the trailing eges of all the skins to help the edges lay flat after riveting. Deburring seemed to be taking forever so I recruited Jess to speed things up. After all was deburred and dimpled I clecoed the leading edges and skins on the skeloton frame and started riveting. So far so good and moving along nicely.

Sunday June 9th - 4.75hrs  All Flap Work
Monday June 10th - 1.25hrs  All Flap Work

Skins clecoed in place.

First line of rivets set.

Both Flap Upper Skins are complete, except the aft two rivets which are back-riveted.

The baby inspecting the work.

Started Flaps

So it's been a while since my last post, but I've been busy.

We flew up to St. Louis again to visit the family over Memorial Day weekend. The flight was great despite the headwind there and back. It was severe clear without a cloud in sight the entire flight to St. Louis.

Jess does a great job entertaining and caring for the baby while we fly. Playing, looking at books, and even changing diapers in flight. Luckily Ayla sleeps most of the flight.

 

 

The parts for the car arrived so I spent the large part of last weekend installing a new water pump (the shiny part in the middle of the picture) and timing belt. This included removing the serpentine belt, pulleys, engine mounts, covers, right front wheel, timing adjustments...... I'm glad it's done.

 

 

I've still been able to find time to work on the plane. The flaps are officially started and probably more than half complete by now. The work has been sporadic and therefore didn't justify making a post about. Then I realized that I've completed quite a bit and lacked on posting. So here is me catching up.

 

The progress in summary:

Clecoed all the parts together and drilled everything out as usual. I countersunk rivet holes for two nutplates. Deburred, dimpled, and riveted all the parts in the lower picture to build the "skeleton" of the flaps. I still need to deburr and dimple the skins. The flaps so far are extremely easy without any frustrations or gotcha moments. I expect to finish them soon. I still need to test the fuel tanks so I guess that's coming up as well......I seem to be procrastinating on that task.

 

Total time since last post = 13.75hrs all on Flaps



 

 

Finished Ailerons

A productive weekend leaves me feeling good again.
- Finished the ailerons
- Ran Conduit in the wings
- Finshed the Flap Gap Fairings
- Hung the wing skins in place
- Started the Flaps section

It felt good to finish up another section of the plans and to do it so quickly when compared to the tanks. The Flap Fairings have been patiently waiting to be completed for a while and I crossed those off the to-do list. Conduit needed to be ran and I finished that as well. I cut the little tabs off the 22(?) flap ribs, sanded and deburred them as well, while grilling outside. I hung the skins in place, placed the ribs back on the shelf, then cleaned the shop and put my tools away to be prepped and ready to start the next section after Memorial Day weekend.

Friday May 17 - 1.25hrs - Riveting Ailerons
Saturday May 18 - 4.25hrs
             2.0hrs - Riveting Ailerons, proseal trailing edges
             2.25hrs - Run Conduit
Sunday May 19 - 3.25hrs
             1.75hrs - Finished Ailerons
             0.75hrs - Finished Flap Gap Fairings
             0.75hrs - Cut Flap Ribs

Finished Ailerons Total Time = 25.5hrs

I was able to use the squeezer for all but the last rivet and instead of fighting to get a solid rivet installed there (and possibly bending the edge of the aileron) I just popped a blind in and moved on. I used an MK-319 rivet instead of the the AD3 rivet that is called out. The blind rivet is weaker than the solid, but in this case the material will fail long before either rivet would, so it doesn't matter.

I used an extension on the unibit to drill through the wing walk ribs. I then sanded the holes down with a dremel to clean up the hole.

I ran all the conduit through the wings. I just enlarged the standard hole that you create in the plans. Somewhere Van's aircraft has posted that enlarging this hole to 3/4" is acceptable to run their conduit through the wings. I still went with their conduit even though the corrugated edges make it difficult to pull through the holes and I've heard it's difficult to pull wires through, for three reasons:

1. It sretches, help during flexing of the wings.

2. It's made of Nylon which has a temperature range of -40 to 185 degrees F.

3. It's cheap.

 

 



A look at the finished ailerons.

Wing bottom skins hung in place.